check this out. these are called word roots. if u wanna guess your vocabs, try memorising these.
since there are many words in the SAT test that play around this kind of word roots, i insist that we try our best to remember them. hope u guys find it helpful.
1. ante : before (antebellum, antediluvian)
2. anti : against (antithesis, antipathy, antiseptic)
3. auto : self (autocratic)
4. bene : good, well (benefactor, benevolent)
5. chron : time (anachronism, asynchronous)
6. circum: around ( circumnavigate, circumference, circumlocution)
7. con, com: with, together (convene, confluence, conjoin)
8. contra, counter : against (contradict, counteract)
9. cred : to believe (credible, credulity, incredulous)
10. dict: to speak (verdict, malediction)
11. dis: not (disperse, dissuade)
12. equi: equal (equidistant, equanimity)
13. ex, e : out, away (emit, enervate)
14. flu, flux : flow (fluctuate, effluvium)
15. hyper : above, over (hyperbolic, hyperactive)
16. in, im : not (inviolate, innocuous, intractable)
17. inter: between (intermittent, introvert)
18. mal : bad (malfunction, maladjusted)
19. multi: many (multivalent, multitude)
20. neo : new (neophyte)
21. omni : all (omnipotent, omnivorous)
22. per : through (persuade, impervious)
23. sanct : holy (sanctify, sanctuary)
24. scrib, script : to write ( prescribe, inscription)
25. spect : to look (circumspect, aspect, prospect)
26. tract : to drag, to draw (protract, detract, intractable)
27. trans : across (transigent)
28. vert : to turn (extrovert, introvert)
so, see what i mean that we can guess smartly during the exam?
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
of cold itms lab, and blurry eyes of reading texts from the monitor
CL: my shoulders n neck really ache weyh.
dpeacemaker: my eyes danced with stars after 2 hours in front of the monitor. aiyo.
see how painful concentration can be?? i know, it's the harsh reality of studying anyway. but then, these two painful symptoms clearly signified that we both did our very best to finish mr yu jin's assessment tests on the screen. no pain, no gain right??
warning: it might be a little too boring but trust me, do read. i would love to know that i have helped my friends out there.
VOCABS; HOW TO STORE THEM IN OUR MINDS? WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SOO INSIPID TO MEMORISE THEM?
A very common question. i just got two friends who asked me the similar question just now. personally, i think that when it comes to this part, IT REALLY NEEDS OUR OWN HARD WORK. memorising can be very ARDUOUS, but it is one of the best ways to help us add on to our scarce amount of vocabs in ourselves. there is no easy way unless you are a walking dictionary or thesaurus. how to memorise? well, my style is to question among my friends which mostly i do with jason. since, he got this little blue book full of wonderful words, we share and learn new words together. you can certainly help each other replenish our vocabs by listing them down and create sentences with them, not only it helps for the sentence completion, it helps me to write in madam ong's essays. if any of you who wants to try this out, i can guarantee it'll be fun. not only we benefit ourselves but we help others in a way too. after all, sharing is caring. so, why not?
another good idea is to have flash cards. zera, my friend, she has this really colourful flash cards which she made herself (and i sometimes borrow). since i really love colourful stuff, (especially when i write my notes), i find it easy to remember the words because i tend to remember the color of the cards. this way is highly recommended to those who despise the monotony of black and white prints. i can also suggest that we photocopy the 250 most difficult SAT words which i copied from irwan, who also downloaded them from the internet. these words are commonly found in most SAT practice books and i can assure you that the more we see these words routinely, we can eventually grasp them and fill them in our memory box.
finally, use intuition. a very risky way but CL loves to remember his words by separating the words into positive or negative ones other than guessing the meanings of the words from other words that he knows. like when there's a word containing ambi, it might mean two things or dual i.e, ambiguous, ambivalent. also, mal means something bad, i.e. malfunction. sometimes when i find myself staring at the question, i would just trust my heart and circle the word that i think might fit. there are a few tips on how to utilise this style, so, do your homework and search for it ok if u find that it need herculian efforts to memorise the bombastic words. mr. google is ready to assist you anytime.
so, for the part where i did my sentence completion section, i managed to get 'good' and 'marginal' for the questions. i know that if we read in the SAT books, there is always this kind of reminder to SEARCH FOR THE KEY WORDS OR KEY PHRASE to indicate clearly the suitable word for the whole sentence. personally, i love this part. why? i love to know that there is a section in the SAT that i understand what it asks about. when i read the sentence, i first try fit my own words to the blanks and then, find the similar word with the same meaning. if it has two blanks, there should be at least a blank that we can guess smartly. if this style appeals to you, try it out. it helps me, so, maybe any of you out there might find it helpful too.
some of us would think when the heck do people use all these kind of huge grand words in life? my answer, mostly in novels. not many people share my love for reading english novels but seriously, in a very nerdy way, i suggest all of us increase our reading materials. Reader's digest's vocab section also helps if you cannot fit reading noels in your hectic life schedule. do whichever way you like. i do not guarantee if my style would be applicable to yours. but, there's no harm in trying. after all, it's for our own good.
will update more about other parts later, but for now, bear with my endless rambling on vocabs.
words for the day: FIND THE MEANING, WILL YOU?
1. draconian
2. obviate
3. postulate
4. omnipotence
5. hubris
(if jason is reading this, i can guarantee you can easily answer all these words, buddy)
dpeacemaker: my eyes danced with stars after 2 hours in front of the monitor. aiyo.
see how painful concentration can be?? i know, it's the harsh reality of studying anyway. but then, these two painful symptoms clearly signified that we both did our very best to finish mr yu jin's assessment tests on the screen. no pain, no gain right??
warning: it might be a little too boring but trust me, do read. i would love to know that i have helped my friends out there.
VOCABS; HOW TO STORE THEM IN OUR MINDS? WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SOO INSIPID TO MEMORISE THEM?
A very common question. i just got two friends who asked me the similar question just now. personally, i think that when it comes to this part, IT REALLY NEEDS OUR OWN HARD WORK. memorising can be very ARDUOUS, but it is one of the best ways to help us add on to our scarce amount of vocabs in ourselves. there is no easy way unless you are a walking dictionary or thesaurus. how to memorise? well, my style is to question among my friends which mostly i do with jason. since, he got this little blue book full of wonderful words, we share and learn new words together. you can certainly help each other replenish our vocabs by listing them down and create sentences with them, not only it helps for the sentence completion, it helps me to write in madam ong's essays. if any of you who wants to try this out, i can guarantee it'll be fun. not only we benefit ourselves but we help others in a way too. after all, sharing is caring. so, why not?
another good idea is to have flash cards. zera, my friend, she has this really colourful flash cards which she made herself (and i sometimes borrow). since i really love colourful stuff, (especially when i write my notes), i find it easy to remember the words because i tend to remember the color of the cards. this way is highly recommended to those who despise the monotony of black and white prints. i can also suggest that we photocopy the 250 most difficult SAT words which i copied from irwan, who also downloaded them from the internet. these words are commonly found in most SAT practice books and i can assure you that the more we see these words routinely, we can eventually grasp them and fill them in our memory box.
finally, use intuition. a very risky way but CL loves to remember his words by separating the words into positive or negative ones other than guessing the meanings of the words from other words that he knows. like when there's a word containing ambi, it might mean two things or dual i.e, ambiguous, ambivalent. also, mal means something bad, i.e. malfunction. sometimes when i find myself staring at the question, i would just trust my heart and circle the word that i think might fit. there are a few tips on how to utilise this style, so, do your homework and search for it ok if u find that it need herculian efforts to memorise the bombastic words. mr. google is ready to assist you anytime.
so, for the part where i did my sentence completion section, i managed to get 'good' and 'marginal' for the questions. i know that if we read in the SAT books, there is always this kind of reminder to SEARCH FOR THE KEY WORDS OR KEY PHRASE to indicate clearly the suitable word for the whole sentence. personally, i love this part. why? i love to know that there is a section in the SAT that i understand what it asks about. when i read the sentence, i first try fit my own words to the blanks and then, find the similar word with the same meaning. if it has two blanks, there should be at least a blank that we can guess smartly. if this style appeals to you, try it out. it helps me, so, maybe any of you out there might find it helpful too.
some of us would think when the heck do people use all these kind of huge grand words in life? my answer, mostly in novels. not many people share my love for reading english novels but seriously, in a very nerdy way, i suggest all of us increase our reading materials. Reader's digest's vocab section also helps if you cannot fit reading noels in your hectic life schedule. do whichever way you like. i do not guarantee if my style would be applicable to yours. but, there's no harm in trying. after all, it's for our own good.
will update more about other parts later, but for now, bear with my endless rambling on vocabs.
words for the day: FIND THE MEANING, WILL YOU?
1. draconian
2. obviate
3. postulate
4. omnipotence
5. hubris
(if jason is reading this, i can guarantee you can easily answer all these words, buddy)
Dejected again
My shoulder and neck really ache. But the most hurting part in the computer lab today is not that. It is the same feeling I had in my SAT CR exams. Never in my whole life through the Malaysian Education system had I felt so darn dumb in an English Test. SAT slams it in my face the hard cold fact that my English proficiency is hopeless. SAT doesn't castigate me directly but reprimand me indirectly through the results that I am getting. It's almost traumatizing to be experiencing it all over again today.
My weakness is still the same;obviously I did not improve. I can't seem to grasp the vocabularies. I hate memorizing but the truth is that memorizing seems like the only way. I told myself that I had to succumb to reality but I just can't force myself to go against the policies I hold on to. I am not an iconoclast but I hate to conform to what I believe is wrong. Intransigence gets me no where, this I am aware of. So do I just give up and study the conventional way?
Today 's practice test portends a far worse ramification if I do not crawl back up from that valley of laziness and procrastination. Dilatory is not going to get me anywhere either. It is true when they say that no one can possibly teach you English. It is a language and language needs to be acquired not studied. But i know in some ways, all these English preparatory programs that I am going through right now is not going to help me had I not change the way I think-I used to think and seriously believed that all I need to do to get through SAT is by merely going to class and do my homework, a palpable farce. Teachers are helpful, as a guide, not an answer to all your English issues. The worst mistake I did was depending solely on teachers-which now I tearfully regret. You need hard work. You need to work assiduously, ten folds more diligently.
I think Mr. Yu Jin wanted a more technical aspect and review of what I have done today but I decided to go on with this less technical and more personal post because I feel that the only thing left for critisizing is myself. CL needs to perservere and perspire through this times. CL needs more than a couple of exercises and lectures. CL needs more than the CL he used to be.
Today's test has shown me yet again my lack of acumen in this particular subject I once thought I was good at, obviously not. Today's test has reminded me of that young man feeling belittled and inferiored by a language he grew up with. Come this November, it is going to change. And that "change that we believe in"(quoted from Obama) will start now. "The man in the mirror"(by the late M.J) will not be the same good-looking, hot guy, but will be a freaking scary little English nerd freak! Maybe not to that extent but you get my point.
p/s: I was horrendous in the sentence completion and as I've stated in this whole post, the reason is because I am unaware and not familiar with the words. I've identified that the best way to overcome it is through more practice. Sounds easy, hope it is too...
My weakness is still the same;obviously I did not improve. I can't seem to grasp the vocabularies. I hate memorizing but the truth is that memorizing seems like the only way. I told myself that I had to succumb to reality but I just can't force myself to go against the policies I hold on to. I am not an iconoclast but I hate to conform to what I believe is wrong. Intransigence gets me no where, this I am aware of. So do I just give up and study the conventional way?
Today 's practice test portends a far worse ramification if I do not crawl back up from that valley of laziness and procrastination. Dilatory is not going to get me anywhere either. It is true when they say that no one can possibly teach you English. It is a language and language needs to be acquired not studied. But i know in some ways, all these English preparatory programs that I am going through right now is not going to help me had I not change the way I think-I used to think and seriously believed that all I need to do to get through SAT is by merely going to class and do my homework, a palpable farce. Teachers are helpful, as a guide, not an answer to all your English issues. The worst mistake I did was depending solely on teachers-which now I tearfully regret. You need hard work. You need to work assiduously, ten folds more diligently.
I think Mr. Yu Jin wanted a more technical aspect and review of what I have done today but I decided to go on with this less technical and more personal post because I feel that the only thing left for critisizing is myself. CL needs to perservere and perspire through this times. CL needs more than a couple of exercises and lectures. CL needs more than the CL he used to be.
Today's test has shown me yet again my lack of acumen in this particular subject I once thought I was good at, obviously not. Today's test has reminded me of that young man feeling belittled and inferiored by a language he grew up with. Come this November, it is going to change. And that "change that we believe in"(quoted from Obama) will start now. "The man in the mirror"(by the late M.J) will not be the same good-looking, hot guy, but will be a freaking scary little English nerd freak! Maybe not to that extent but you get my point.
p/s: I was horrendous in the sentence completion and as I've stated in this whole post, the reason is because I am unaware and not familiar with the words. I've identified that the best way to overcome it is through more practice. Sounds easy, hope it is too...
Monday, August 24, 2009
serious assumption tackling
morning, sir! then, i hurriedly took my seat, wondering what our lecturer was going to do for my first lesson with him.
what is SAT? pop. the first question. scholastic aptitude test. scholastic assessment test. self-assessment test.
warning: this is about my experiences facing SAT 1.
my classmates and i took the test last june. frankly, i must admit that my scores were quite bad. too bad to enter any ivy leagues that our sponsor, sime darby has listed for us. feeling disappointed, i realized that i had actually took the test for granted though i don't know whether others feel the same way i did. well, there's no harm in sharing my own experiences i guess.
1. SAT IS NOT LIKE WHAT YOU ASSUME IT IS.
i somehow nonchalantly thought that doing the exercises from my princeton review, collegeboard and barron's books were actually enough. i didn't finish all of them but then, my mind generated thoughts like, of course you can do it. just look at the questions. all of them are doable. i seriously thought that my so-called sufficient amount of practices were enough to face SAT in just three or so weeks of proper preparation. if that kind of thought ever crossed your mind before, quickly erase it or else destroy it in any way you can before it becomes noxious in your head. DO NOT TAKE IT FOR GRANTED NO MATTER HOW EASY YOU MAY FIND IT WHEN YOU ARE DOING THE PRACTICE TESTS FROM THE BOOKS. my seniors (bankers) kept reminding us that we should focus more on critical reading, practice a lot of maths and improve on our writing section. i listened, but didn't seriously do what they asked us to do especially the CRITICAL READING part. so, from the bottom of my heart, listen to what mr yu jin said about living, breathing, sleeping and eating (for those who are fasting, please do not eat your books no matter how starved you are (^_^)) our SAT books before the test date. if possible, do as many practices you can. one of my facilitators during the commonapp workshop told me that she did at least one critical reading section per day, and she will enter Browns University soon.
2. THE LONG HOURS
the gruelling, mind challenging 4 hours of continuous (5 minutes breaks in between the sections) 10 sections of the famous critical reading, mathematics and also writing. if you think you can sleep only for two or three hours and still survive the whole day without feeling sleepy or stressful, try do the SAT test in full rehearsal. i thought that i can survive this. after all, i survived my biology test in school so why can't i survive this one, right? we are clearly aware that this test clearly emphasizes on the conciseness and precision of time management in answering the questions. i don't need to explain the technical aspects of the test because we can find the directions from our sacred collegeboard SAT books. yes, some of us can certainly survive the long hours but me, i experienced a serious longing for the test to end as i started the sixth section. i guess it was because i was feeling the pressure or else, i was just plain tired. so, here, a very common advice but still, i think i should add here is that we are supposed to GET ENOUGH REST THE NIGHT BEFORE THE TEST. by enough, i mean really rest your mind and sleep in the right position so that your body can sustain the strain of sitting too long on the chairs during exam. who says SAT only challenges your mind? sometimes, standing seems like a boon when u sat for the test.
3. WRITING LIKE WE WERE IN SCHOOL?
unfortunately, for writing section, no, we do not write like we used to in schools for our SPM. at first, i find it very hard to organize my thoughts into proper academic if not factual essay because i was soo used to write narrative essays with its flowery, full of jargons language. our previous lecturer clearly showed the right way of combining facts and personal experiences to produce a splendid essay. a very well written ACADEMIC essay. what i can comment about the topics is that it's basically asking for our OPINIONS. but, what differentiate them with our school essays is that these topics TEST ON OUR MATURITY OF THINKING AND KNOWLEDGE. so, LET'S ALL start thinking out of the box and expand our views of life. it helps me in my writing. (if you want to try to really open up your view on life, jodi picoult is a recommended author)
for now, these are a few things that i can come up with. if i remember anything, i'll post it later or my partner will add. basically, some of you might find the things i typed cannot be that serious but trust me, this is real experience. think it for a second, ok? (^_^)
what is SAT? pop. the first question. scholastic aptitude test. scholastic assessment test. self-assessment test.
warning: this is about my experiences facing SAT 1.
my classmates and i took the test last june. frankly, i must admit that my scores were quite bad. too bad to enter any ivy leagues that our sponsor, sime darby has listed for us. feeling disappointed, i realized that i had actually took the test for granted though i don't know whether others feel the same way i did. well, there's no harm in sharing my own experiences i guess.
1. SAT IS NOT LIKE WHAT YOU ASSUME IT IS.
i somehow nonchalantly thought that doing the exercises from my princeton review, collegeboard and barron's books were actually enough. i didn't finish all of them but then, my mind generated thoughts like, of course you can do it. just look at the questions. all of them are doable. i seriously thought that my so-called sufficient amount of practices were enough to face SAT in just three or so weeks of proper preparation. if that kind of thought ever crossed your mind before, quickly erase it or else destroy it in any way you can before it becomes noxious in your head. DO NOT TAKE IT FOR GRANTED NO MATTER HOW EASY YOU MAY FIND IT WHEN YOU ARE DOING THE PRACTICE TESTS FROM THE BOOKS. my seniors (bankers) kept reminding us that we should focus more on critical reading, practice a lot of maths and improve on our writing section. i listened, but didn't seriously do what they asked us to do especially the CRITICAL READING part. so, from the bottom of my heart, listen to what mr yu jin said about living, breathing, sleeping and eating (for those who are fasting, please do not eat your books no matter how starved you are (^_^)) our SAT books before the test date. if possible, do as many practices you can. one of my facilitators during the commonapp workshop told me that she did at least one critical reading section per day, and she will enter Browns University soon.
2. THE LONG HOURS
the gruelling, mind challenging 4 hours of continuous (5 minutes breaks in between the sections) 10 sections of the famous critical reading, mathematics and also writing. if you think you can sleep only for two or three hours and still survive the whole day without feeling sleepy or stressful, try do the SAT test in full rehearsal. i thought that i can survive this. after all, i survived my biology test in school so why can't i survive this one, right? we are clearly aware that this test clearly emphasizes on the conciseness and precision of time management in answering the questions. i don't need to explain the technical aspects of the test because we can find the directions from our sacred collegeboard SAT books. yes, some of us can certainly survive the long hours but me, i experienced a serious longing for the test to end as i started the sixth section. i guess it was because i was feeling the pressure or else, i was just plain tired. so, here, a very common advice but still, i think i should add here is that we are supposed to GET ENOUGH REST THE NIGHT BEFORE THE TEST. by enough, i mean really rest your mind and sleep in the right position so that your body can sustain the strain of sitting too long on the chairs during exam. who says SAT only challenges your mind? sometimes, standing seems like a boon when u sat for the test.
3. WRITING LIKE WE WERE IN SCHOOL?
unfortunately, for writing section, no, we do not write like we used to in schools for our SPM. at first, i find it very hard to organize my thoughts into proper academic if not factual essay because i was soo used to write narrative essays with its flowery, full of jargons language. our previous lecturer clearly showed the right way of combining facts and personal experiences to produce a splendid essay. a very well written ACADEMIC essay. what i can comment about the topics is that it's basically asking for our OPINIONS. but, what differentiate them with our school essays is that these topics TEST ON OUR MATURITY OF THINKING AND KNOWLEDGE. so, LET'S ALL start thinking out of the box and expand our views of life. it helps me in my writing. (if you want to try to really open up your view on life, jodi picoult is a recommended author)
for now, these are a few things that i can come up with. if i remember anything, i'll post it later or my partner will add. basically, some of you might find the things i typed cannot be that serious but trust me, this is real experience. think it for a second, ok? (^_^)
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